The last time Chalonda White visited Milwaukee for the sole purpose of drinking its beer, she could count the city’s breweries on one hand.
It was 2012 and the Brew City was home to the legacy beer giant Miller Brewing Co. that helped give the city that nickname and the three dedicated area breweries that emerged during the rebirth of local brewing in the 1980s and 1990s: Lakefront Brewery, Sprecher Brewing Co. and Milwaukee Brewing Co.
Seven years later, on a Saturday in late May, White – a Chicago-based beer enthusiast who blogs, as Afro Beer Chick, about her beer adventures and founded a Chicago chapter of a national organization for fellow female beer fans – decided to return to Milwaukee to check out its now-robust craft beer scene.
The day before her trip, she put a call out on Twitter soliciting recommendations from locals, who were eager to help her navigate the city’s landscape, now 40 breweries strong. Heeding their recommendations, White’s daytrip included brunching at Comet Café and sampling a limited-release Jam Sesh PB&J Ale at Eagle Park Brewing Co. on the East Side, picking up a six-pack of Upward Spiral from Third Space Brewing in the Menomonee Valley, relaxing at the Milwaukee Yacht Club on the lakefront, trying an assortment of IPAs and stouts at 1840 Brewing Co. in Bay View and taking in the woodsy aesthetic of Black Husky Brewing’s Riverwest taproom.
Her review?
“I had a freaking ball,” White said. “It really changed my view of Milwaukee, with how much it’s developed downtown, Riverwest, the lakefront. It gave me a higher respect for Milwaukee and a whole new set of eyes. This town is pretty dope.”
Mapping Milwaukee’s beer scene
For the city that was built in part by 19th century beer barons, beer today remains a driver of out-of-town traffic to Milwaukee.
While data isn’t available showing its direct economic impact on metro Milwaukee, travel and tourism research firm Longwoods International indicates beer tourism was responsible for 11% of total overnight trips in Milwaukee in 2018, compared to the national average of 5%. Breweries were among the top five reasons for visitors to spend an overnight in Milwaukee, according to the research.
In 2018, visitors to Milwaukee spent $483.2 million on food and beverages in Milwaukee County, an increase of 6% over the previous year, according to VISIT Milwaukee. It was the second-highest visitor spending category last year, behind local transportation.
VISIT Milwaukee has made a marketing push in recent years to leverage the city’s historic beer roots, while promoting the wave of new microbreweries, in an effort to capture the growing “brewcation” market. In some ways, it’s a matter of leaning in to what has always been core to Milwaukee’s identity.
“Milwaukee has always had a strong beer scene,” said Megan Suardini, vice president of marketing and communications for VISIT Milwaukee. “As far as beer tourism, we are very well known as ‘Brew City’ across the nation, which obviously goes back to the beer barons, Pabst, Schlitz and Blatz. There isn’t any confusion that Milwaukee is known as a hot beer scene.”
When it comes to competition, the cities that have effectively positioned themselves as beer tourism destinations are largely outside of the Midwest, including Denver, San Diego, Portland and Asheville, North Carolina, Suardini said. Closer to home, Madison, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Grand Rapids, Michigan all have “strong beer scenes,” though Suardini wouldn’t call them competitors.
Milwaukee has a unique position in the market, however, she said.
“They all have strong craft beer scenes, but we have a very strong craft beer scene along with the beer history and beer culture,” she said.
In 2018, VISIT Milwaukee partnered with the Milwaukee Craft Brewery League, Lakefront Brewery, Pabst Brewery and malt company Malteurop Malting Co., which has a factory in Milwaukee, to release The Original Brew City Beer Map, a foldable guide of 62 beer-related destinations in the greater Milwaukee area, including the metro area’s many beer gardens, historic beer sites and breweries.
“It was a project a few years in the making,” Suardini said. “What really makes it unique is it’s all inclusive; it doesn’t just represent breweries, but all beer-related attractions. Every other city that I can think of that has a beer map or beer trail, it’s very much focused on breweries exclusively. We worked hard to include a combination of breweries and all other beer-themed activities you can do.”
VISIT Milwaukee printed a half-million copies to distribute both in-market – at restaurants, hotels and breweries – and out-of-market at rest stops and other high-traffic tourist areas. The organization is also in talks with its counterpart in Madison to explore collaborating on a piece that would draw the connections between the two strong beer cities.
Led by VISIT Milwaukee, a delegation of beer representatives brought the then freshly-released map with them in summer 2018 when they attended the Great American Beer Festival, a three-day annual event in Denver that draws more than 60,000 beer enthusiasts from around the world. It’s a strategic place for Milwaukee representatives to be. Among GABF attendees – more of half of whom come from outside of Colorado – 84% reported being interested in traveling for beer-related reasons.
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